Written by Haim Ravia and Dotan Hammer
According to a settlement agreement in a privacy class action asserted against Meta (previously known as Facebook), the Internet giant will pay 4 million ILS to promote activities related to privacy.
The settlement is still pending court approval, but the class action asserted that Facebook had activated a monitoring mechanism on users’ private messages, read their content, and used them for commercial purposes. The cause of action alleged that Facebook disregards Israeli law requirements to notify users, obtain their informed consent, and register its database with the Israeli registrar of databases. Facebook denied the allegations.
After nearly a decade of litigation, which included motions about the proper governing law and court venue (and which produced an important Supreme Court precedent in 2018), the parties reached this settlement agreement. The money will be given to the Israeli national class action fund, which will invest the amount in activities that promote “education about privacy, protection of privacy and privacy enhancing technologies.” Meta will also pay the lead plaintiff and attorneys over 1.3 million ILS.
